CY Leung grilled over UGL saga during his last Legco Q&A

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was grilled over secret payments he received from Australian engineering company UGL and insisted he did nothing wrong.

In his last Q&A session in Legco before he steps down on July 1, Leung fielded questions from legislators regarding the controversial payout, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reports.

Lawmaker Wu Chi-wai, who chairs the Democratic Party, asked Leung if he would be worried about being investigated by Beijing since he did not declare the payment, even though he has been promoted to be vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, China’s top political advisory body.

In response, Leung said he could not understand why Legco had to reopen the probe into the matter since he already clearly explained what happened two and half years ago.

Leung said he had taken the initiative to tell Beijing about the matter and received a positive feedback.

Beijing is fully aware of everything that happens in Hong Kong, Leung said.

The UGL saga was first revealed in October 2014, at the height of the pro-democracy protests, when the Australian media reported that Leung received HK$50 million in confidential payment from UGL as part of the latter’s purchase of Leung’s real estate service firm DTZ.

CY Leung allegedly received the money after he became chief executive and failed to declare it and paid no taxes for it.

Asked by lawmaker Tam Man-ho from the Civic Party if he will attend hearings held by the Legco committee that was formed to investigate the UGL saga, Leung did not give a straight answer but implied that he will not if the committee just wants to “beat a dead horse” and put up a political show.

Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting demanded Leung explain why he did not declare to the Executive Council the resignation agreement signed between him and UGL in 2011.

Leung said there’s no need to declare such a resignation agreement under the council’s interest declaration system, stressing there is nothing worth questioning in the agreement.

Leung also reiterated that neither Hong Kong nor the UK tax authorities have contacted him over the matter in the past two and half years

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